I spotted a sign with a photo of a cat on it with what seemed like instructions to climb to the steps to the right of us. We climbed to the fourth floor -- following the paw print stickers on the stairs -- of a small building lining one of the busier streets in downtown Daegu. Once at the cafe we took off our shoes, slipped into some provided rubber sandals, sanitized our hands, ordered a very expensive drink, and tried to keep my head from exploding.
There were kitties everywhere! Many of the older, chubbier kitties were asleep while the rest of them -- mostly the kittens, piled around the center of the cafe where a couple of people were feeding the kittens treats and taking lots and lots of photos. I really wanted to pick up a kitten but there was no way they were leaving the tuna and no way the people feeding the tuna were going to stop any time soon (and no way they were making room for me on the floor anyway). One guy in particular was literally covered with about 6-7 cats -- some asleep, some still looking for food, others curled up, fat and happy, beside him.
We gave up on the kittens and moved on to the older cats: a devious white sphynx, a sassy persian, a chubby orange tabby that I wanted to squeeze to pieces, a wild-looking cat with folded ears that reminded us so much of Max, and a bunch of other sleepy heads, all of them cute and as cuddly as can be. We sorta felt like we were cheating on our own kitties though. I mean, couldn't we have just bought better, cheaper, coffee and taken it to where our kitties were staying and spent time with them? I suppose that's besides the point.
In the past year cat cafe's have become super popular in the US but they have been popular in Asia for quite some time. In the US the cats are usually available for adoption. Here -- or at least at this cafe -- I was not so sure. It was not evidently clear though on one wall all the kitties' photos were pasted in a colorful, collage-like fashion, with what I'm assuming were their names and personality traits. Did that mean they were available for adoption? Or was that just a get to know our kitties sort of thing? Do they have a set amount of kitties that they keep forever? And where do they get the kitties? Breeders? Shelters? I'll have to do more research...or learn to read Korean.
Obviously we loved this place, as would any lover of animals or kitties. Why couldn't these have been around in college when we weren't allowed to have kitties? I would have been there every night, "studying." Dog lovers and farm animal lovers don't despair: you can also find dog and...farm cafes in Korea. Definitely on our places to visit list.